I was searching the web for the meaning of what a realm is, and the results, according to various sites such as word reference, dictionary and google translate were: "the area over which, or extent to which, a king or queen has authority" "a community or territory over which a sovereign rules; a kingdom" This definitions, in a way, are implying that only a kingdom can be a realm. And my question is: Isn't an emperor a sovereign too? And if only the area where a king or queen has authority can be called a realm, then how is the area where the emperor or empress has authority called?
That is an empire. Also, empire, realm, dominion, territory, domain, etc can be pretty much used interchangeably. No hard and fast rules here, IMO.
An Empire is basically a group of vassal states, territories, smaller kingdoms, principality, domains, fiefs and but not limited to colonies and protectorates all under a single head of state, the Emperor or Empress. You can call this a realm. In a nutshell "realm" is used to describe the totality of a state's territories and/or influence. So yes the Emperor is a sovereign, and his "realm" is his empire. Realm can however also be applied to smaller states. Realm = Territory. It's a really archaic word to use these days.
It absolutely is. The main thing with the term realm is it's so vague it encompasses multiple meanings. I'm seeing in your post mention of the term kingdom then emperor, etc. These have western & eastern flairs which makes the term realm both eastern and western in meaning, so it's starting to become confusing as to the style of the story.
do not know if you are asking for a specify novel or genre or situation or simple about the writing jargon (that i do believe it is) but giving a generic answer , A empire is used to imply a large improvement on a scale of several times from a "normal" kingdom , so once a kingdom reach certain scale be it power(for example military power)-area(literal Km²) for example they can be called a empire and not simple a kingdom anymore because they have the power of multiple kingdoms. SO now that i have taken this out i'm going to really try to answer your question: yeah they can be called a realm as well,but normally i have rarely seen or read the totally of the empire being called by realm "alone" since there is a few things to take note, normally the word "realm" would come with a sufixe or a prefixe to specify a important place or geographic location or even the banner of the local ruler to separate them from the rest of the territory since a empire normally by definition is far large than a normal kingdom and you can not simple go calling everywhere a realm since someplaces are as big as "normal" kingdom and have their own ruler for that location that is vassal to the emperor and others would not be as bigger so it won't enter the definition of a realm , normally the only place that can only be called by the word "realm" alone is the area direct under the emperor (capital and surround areas normally) this is also to give the emperor a higher degree of importance in the history as being the only one who does not have a sufixe/prefixe to the word realm when talking about it, so a reader knows when he sees REALM alone in a sentence is about the emperor and not some vassal estate. example: so you can call the western part of the empire for example western realm that is ruled by DUKE PXXX or things like that, but you can not call simple realm, when talking about the western part of the empire , even if we all knows that the duke rules the western parts but he is a vassal ruled by the emperor. there is a specify technical term for things like that in writing but since i'm not a writer i do not recall it right now, but simple calling everything realm, you are more or less influencing the imaginations of the reader and decreasing the overall size of the empire, just think about it a empire ruled by a emperor but divided in 5 realms (north east west south center or multiple other specify locations called by a sufix or a prefix ) it seems far bigger for anyone that is reading and trying to imagine the history than simple calling and putting everything together as a single "realm" , not that this would be the wrong use of the word anyway, is just less COOL. this is it with my knowledge, hope that it becomes clearly to you, tried to write the best i could
I'd say and empire can be called a realm, as well as a domain. While a county can be called a domain but NOT a realm. I imagine a realm being an autonomous entity while a domain is a far looser definition, just like territory. (A king, baron, city, religion, race etc. can all have a territory, just that some are naturally bigger than others.)
Depends on how you state it. Typically it's about a area of space where it rules supreme. So if you are talking about a cultivation novel only the land rules supreme so pocket dimensions and whole worlds are called realms since the heavens are king. But if you have empires as long as there is no controlling power placing them as a vessel state then the empire is considered a realm. That's also why a town cant really be determined as a realm
realm [relm] NOUN archaic literary law a kingdom. "the peers of the realm" · kingdom · sovereign state · monarchy · empire · principality · palatinate · duchy · country · land · domain · dominion · nation · province a field or domain of activity or interest. "the realm of applied chemistry" synonyms: domain · sphere · area · field · department · arena · world · region · province · territory · zone · orbit zoology a primary biogeographical division of the earth's surface. "this zoogeographical realm includes Africa south of the Atlas Mountains"
The only realm i know about(lol) are the ones in Chinese novels. And they are usually different dimensions like the windswept realm in issth.... For real tho... I thought u were talking about cn realms...
Lemme try to hit this question in a simplified way: "In the Astral Realm there are many Empires." "In Ming's galactic empire there were many realms" "Son, you will inherit this empire and all within it's realm." Authors play loose and dirty with the meaning of words all the time (including historians) and an English teacher wouldn't even give you a hard time about it. The answer is, "Not necessarily but yes."
Wiki link for Emperor. The emperor title isn’t only for eastern emperors. The two famous emperors I can think of is the Roman emperor Augustus and the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte. The east had a shit ton of Chinese emperors and Japanese emperors. Not being racist I just don’t remember them. Also can’t be racist to my own race heh.
That's not actually true. Realm (as OP uses it) specifically refers to a kingdom. Empire specifically refers to an empire. Those are not interchangeable. The others seem to be more general terms that can apply to either.
The reason why language questions are divisive is that there is a formal and many informal ways to use most words. Formally speaking, "realm" means kingdom and nothing else. If the ruler is a prince, or a duke, or an emperor, then the territory he controls cannot be a realm. Informally though, it can mean all of those things so it's going to depend on whether the original source cares about the distinction and whether you want to preserve the meaning. Generally I can't imagine that any Asian language will have an exact equivalent for "realm" so it's probably not that important.
OP didn't state it had to be used in a specific way only. There's no context provided. Moreover, I was answering to only part of OP's question, i.e., the part which I quoted. Even if one goes by the definitions, i.e., of a realm being "an area over which a king/queen has authority", it works; if u go by history, Queen Victoria and the British Empire, for example (I am aware there were other factors at play here, but it is considered acceptable). One of the meanings of realm provided by OP talks about a "sovereign's area of influence", and the term sovereign includes emperors. That's why I pointed out there's no strict rules governing its usage.